Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj, Naogaon and Satkhira are the country's best-known mango districts, and their mangoes go to Europe, America and other parts of the world. In recent years mango yields have also risen in the hilly areas of Chattogram's three hill districts, but no export opportunity has opened up for them.

Besides mango, Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban produce bumper crops of jackfruit, pineapple and dragon fruit, yet the scope for exporting them remains limited.

People in the trade say fruit exports from Chattogram cannot grow because there are no cargo flights from Shah Amanat International Airport, air fares are higher in Bangladesh than in neighbouring India, and quarantine cannot be ensured in the orchards where the fruit is grown.

Ibco Food Industries Ltd, based in the Sagarika area of Chattogram, exports fresh fruit to various countries. Its chairman, Iqbal Ahmed Ovi, told Jagonews24: "We export mango, jackfruit and other seasonal fruit. Our fruit goes to the European market. Air freight costs far more than the freight for reefer containers by sea."

Although the hill areas of Chattogram produce a lot of fruit, he said there is no chance of exporting it to Europe: "The mangoes we send to the UK are collected from Chapainawabganj and Rajshahi, because the orchards there are supervised by the government."

"Quarantine is followed in those orchards. But there is no government quarantine management in our hill areas. Because of various international bindings, there is no scope to export fresh fruit from here to the European market," he said.

Mahbub Rana, president of the Chittagong Fresh Fruits Vegetable Exporters Association, is himself involved in exporting fresh fruit. He told Jagonews24: "Chattogram and the three hill districts have been producing large amounts of mango, pineapple and jackfruit for several years. But for lack of opportunity these fruits cannot be exported. There are many obstacles to exporting fresh fruit, and only a very small amount gets through."

He said excessive air fares are the main obstacle. From neighbouring India it costs at most Tk 350 in air freight to send a kilogram of mangoes to Canada, but from Bangladesh the air freight alone for a kilogram of mangoes to Canada is Tk 700. "That is why exports are not growing. Where India is using the opportunity, we are failing," he said.

Complaining that Shah Amanat is international in name only, the business leader said: "Cargo flights still do not operate at Chattogram's Shah Amanat International Airport. There are some flights to the Middle East, which carry some fresh fruit along with vegetables. But there are no flights to Europe. Anyone who wants to export fresh fruit has to do it via Dhaka."

Syed Mohammad Shoaib Hasan, general secretary of the Bangladesh Agro Processors' Association (BAPA), told Jagonews24: "There are still a hundred obstacles to exporting agro-processed food. Negative criticism is the main barrier for this industry."

He said the whole sector was being portrayed as criminal through the use of the term "food fraud" in the name of drives. "The media must play a role in presenting the fruit processing industry positively, avoiding this criticism."

Urging the government to draw up policy with people experienced in the processed food industry, he said: "Policies are made sitting in the ministry, and such policies bring no benefit. Besides the industries and commerce ministries, the agriculture ministry is heavily involved in the processed food industry, so it has to come forward as a key partner. Then the export market for processed fruit and food can be expanded, opening the way for more foreign currency earnings."

Fresh and processed fruit is exported through Chattogram port and Shah Amanat International Airport. According to the Plant Quarantine Station at Chattogram port, 235 tonnes 412 kg of fresh fruit was exported in the first 11 months of the current 2025-26 fiscal year, up to May. It was 105 tonnes 729 kg in 2024-25 and 116 tonnes 400 kg in 2023-24.

The airport's plant quarantine centre said fresh fruit exported through Shah Amanat on passenger flights totalled 408 tonnes 881 kg in 2024-25, 423 tonnes 560 kg in 2023-24 and 288 tonnes 618 kg in 2022-23.

The fruits include mango, jackfruit, pineapple, lemon, black plum (jam), guava, jujube, coconut, hog plum (amra), olive, satkara, wood apple, tamarind, green palm fruit, lychee, elephant apple and pomelo. Lemon, mango, jackfruit, hog plum and olive are exported most.

They go to Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Singapore, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland and Sweden, with the Middle East taking the most.

The three hill districts of Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban cover more than a tenth of the country's area. According to the DAE, they produce about 15 to 20 per cent of the country's total fruit, some 44 kinds including mango, jackfruit, pineapple, banana, papaya and orange, amounting to roughly 15 lakh tonnes.

Mohammad Ali Jinnah, additional director of the DAE's Chattogram region, oversees agriculture in the three hill districts and in Cox's Bazar, Chattogram, Feni, Lakshmipur and Noakhali. He told Jagonews24: "Our three hill districts produce plenty of seasonal fruit, and the mango yield is rising every year. The fruit is tasty and very sweet. But because communication infrastructure is underdeveloped, it has not been possible to bring the orchards under quarantine."

To export fresh fruit to Europe and other developed countries, quarantine must be maintained from the start of production, he said. "That facility has not yet developed in the hill districts, but the government has plans. We have a limited quarantine project running in Bandarban, and mangoes from one orchard in Khagrachhari have been certified for export. But large-scale export opportunities are not being created."

If communications in the hills improve, the orchards could be brought under quarantine, he said. "Now, although the hill districts produce plenty of fruit in season, growers do not get good prices. Good mangoes sell for Tk 20, 25 or 30 a kg in the hills, the same ones that sell for Tk 70-80 in Chattogram."

"If export opportunities are created, growers and orchard entrepreneurs will get good prices and benefit. New orchards will be planted too. One day the three hill areas of Chattogram will earn the same reputation as Rajshahi and Chapainawabganj," the government agriculture official said.

Quarantine means keeping a healthy person or animal that is at risk of an infectious disease apart from others for a set period, to establish whether they are really infected and to stop the disease spreading.

In the same way, quarantine in a fruit orchard means protective measures that stop new diseases or harmful pests entering the orchard from outside, and that prevent any disease that appears in the orchard from spreading to other healthy orchards or areas nearby.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.